There are effectively four railway stations on the site: on National Rail, two serving main-line routes in south eastern England, to Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Eastbourne, Canterbury and Dover; and on the London Underground, an underground station built by the cut-and-cover method serving the District and Circle lines and the deep-level Victoria line tube line station.

Victoria station (first referred as the "Grosvenor Terminus") is the closest mainline station to Buckingham Palace.[6][7]

The approaches to Victoria Station in 1912. The line leading to the station is top right, the 'Brighton line' (shown in green) is bottom left and the 'Chatham line' (pink) bottom right. The connection to the G.W.R. and L.N.W.R. (purple) is top left.

Victoria Station in 1897. The separate 'Brighton' (left) and 'Chatham' (right) stations are clearly visible.

The London and Brighton Railway terminus at London Bridge provided reasonable access to the City of London but was most inconvenient for travellers to and from Westminster. As early as 1842 John Urpeth Rastrick had proposed that the railway should build a branch to serve the West End, but his proposal came to nothing.[8] However, the transfer of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill between 1851 and 1854 created a major tourist attraction in the then rural area south of London, and the LB&SCR opened a branch line from the Brighton main line at Sydenham to the site in 1854. While this was under construction the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway also planned a line from Crystal Palace, to a new station at Battersea Wharf, at the southern end of the new Chelsea Bridge. (Despite its location, the new station was called Pimlico; it opened on 27 March 1858.) Shortly afterwards the LB&SCR leased most of the lines of the new railway, and built a further connection from Crystal Palace to the Brighton main line at Norwood Junction, thereby providing itself with a route into west London, although it was recognised that a terminus would be needed on the north side of the River Thames.[9]

The new line followed part of the route of the Grosvenor Canal with Victoria station on the former canal basin. It required the construction of a new bridge over the Thames, originally known as Victoria Bridge and later as Grosvenor Bridge. It was of mixed gauge to cater for GWR trains.

The LB&SCR had hoped to amalgamate with the VS&PR, and introduced a Parliamentary Bill to allow it to do so in 1860. This was opposed by the GWR and LC&DR and rejected.[14] By way of compromise the LB&SCR was permitted to lease Victoria station from the VS&PR, but agreed to accommodate the other railways until a terminus could be built for them on an adjoining site.

Victoria station proved to be unexpectedly popular for both the main companies, and by 1862 there were frequent delays due to congestion at Stewarts Lane Junction. In March 1863 the LB&SCR and the LC&DR jointly funded a new high-level route into Victoria, avoiding Stewarts Lane and requiring the widening of Grosvenor Bridge. The work was completed during 1867/8.[15]

The Brighton side concourse with the escalators to Victoria Place to the right

Plan of Victoria Station as it was in 1888. The 'Chatham' side was rebuilt in 1906 and the 'Brighton' side in 1898–1908

The LB&SCR side of Victoria station opened on 1 October 1860, the temporary terminus in Battersea having closed the day before.[16] It consisted of six platforms and ten tracks, with an entrance on Victoria Street. The site also included a hotel, the 300-bedroom Grosvenor. From 13 August 1866 the LB&SCR ran services from Victoria to London Bridge along the newly completed South London Line.

In 1898 the LB&SCR decided to demolish its station and replace it with an enlarged red-brick Renaissance-style building.[17] Since widening of the station was prevented by the LC&DR station and Buckingham Palace Road, increased capacity was achieved by lengthening the platforms and building crossovers to allow two trains to use each platform simultaneously.[18] Work was completed in 1908, and included the rebuilding of the Grosvenor Hotel at the same time.

The LB&SCR introduced the first all-Pullman train in the UK in December 1881, to Brighton, as the 'Pullman Limited'. Another all-Pullman service was introduced in 1908 under the name of the Southern Belle, then described as "... the most luxurious train in the world...".

The London Chatham and Dover Station as rebuilt by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.

Chatham Side concourse

The LC&DR and GWR jointly leased the 'Chatham' portion of the station for 999 years from 28 June 1860, with the GWR responsible for 6.67%.[20] The LCDR completed its main line as far as Canterbury on 3 December 1860 and began to use the LB&SCR station on that day.[21]

The LCDR and GWR opened their own station on 25 August 1862, occupying a less imposing wooden-fronted building with an entrance on Wilton Road.[22] The Chatham line station had eight platforms, five of which were of mixed gauge, shared by broad-gauge trains of the GWR from Windsor via Southall.[20]

From 1899 the LC&DR entered a working union with its rival, the South Eastern, to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). As a result services from its station at Victoria began to be rationalised and integrated with those from the other SECR termini.

The GWR ceased to use the station for scheduled services in 1915, partly due to World War I and partly through competition between Ealing Broadway and Victoria from the electrified District Railway. The station also became a terminus for trains carrying soldiers to and from France, many of them wounded. A plaque marks the arrival of the body of The Unknown Warrior at platform 8 at 2032 on 10 November 1920.

The two stations at Victoria came largely under single ownership in 1923 with the formation of the Southern Railway (SR). The following year steps were taken to integrate the two stations. The platforms were renumbered in a single sequence, openings were made in the wall separating them to allow passengers to pass from one to the other without going into the street, and alterations were made to the tracks to allow for interchangeable working.[24] The SR also concentrated Continental steamer traffic at Victoria, introducing the most famous of those trains, the Golden Arrow, in 1926, and the Night Ferry in 1936.

The station had a news cinema (later a cartoon cinema) that showed a continuous programme. The cinema was designed by Alastair Macdonald, son of Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald, and was in operation from 1933 until being demolished in 1981. The GWR remained part-owner of the station until 1932 thereafter retaining running powers, although it does not appear to have used them.[25]

The greatest change to the station during the 1920s and 1930s was the introduction of third railelectrification for all suburban and many main line services, replacing the original LB&SCR overhead scheme by 1929 and largely replacing steam traction, except on Chatham Section mainline and Oxted line trains. Services to Orpington were electrified in 1925 and Epsom the following year. By 1932 the Brighton main line was electrified, quickly followed by those to other Sussex coastal towns and Portsmouth by 1938.[24] The brand name "Southern Electric" was applied to all these services. The Brighton Belle, the first electric all-Pullman service in the world, ran from Victoria from 29 June 1934 until its withdrawal on 30 April 1972.

British Railways took over the station on 1 January 1948. During the 1950s and early 1960s British Railways completed its Kent Coast Electrification schemes, which meant that most of the remaining services from the station were electrified, including boat trains. Some minor services were withdrawn, and the few remaining steam services, to Oxted and beyond, were replaced by diesel-electric multiple units.

The station was redeveloped internally in the 1980s, with the addition of shops within the concourse, and above the western platforms as the "Victoria Place" shopping centre. A major re-signalling scheme was also carried out.

The other major change to the station under British Railways was the gradual development of services to the new Gatwick Airport railway station after its opening in June 1958. In 1984 the non-stop Gatwick Express service was started, aiming for a 30-minute journey time. This was coupled with the provision of an airport lounge and check-in facilities at first-floor level, with dedicated escalators down to the Gatwick Express platforms. British Airways and other major airlines had their own check-in desks there.

British Rail used to operate a large International Travel Centre within the main station, separate from the domestic travel centre. At the time Victoria was a major departure point for international travel, with boat trains to Dover and Folkestone for France and Belgium and beyond. This ceased with the introduction of Eurostar in 1994, which did not serve Victoria, and the International Travel Centre eventually closed.

The eastern (Chatham) side, comprising platforms 1–8, is the terminus for Southeastern services to Kent on the Chatham Main Line and its branches. This is also the London terminus for the Venice Simplon Orient Express, from Platform 2, the longest platform. It was used for boat trains to Dover and Folkestone until these were made redundant by the introduction of Eurostar trains to the continent in 1994.

The track layout does not allow much swapping, with only a few connecting flyovers between the main lines in the Battersea area, plus a single-track connection immediately outside the station. As the Brighton side is the busier of the two, disruption on that line sometimes results in some of its suburban services using the eastern side. This is particularly true of the Gatwick Express, which travels along the Brighton Main Line, but often diverts over Chatham tracks during engineering works in order to maintain service levels.

There are ticket barriers to all platforms. Platforms 13 and 14, where the Gatwick Express departs, were previously open but were gated in December 2011.

Gatwick Express, formerly a separate franchise but now operated by Southern, runs from platforms 13 and 14. It is a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport every 15 minutes. The typical journey time is 30 minutes (up to 35 minutes on Saturdays). There is no longer an option to buy tickets on the train, following the introduction of ticket barriers in December 2011.[26]

In addition to the 15-minute off-peak timetable, there are two services during the morning and six services during the evening peak that call at Gatwick Airport and then continue to Brighton. Journeys to destinations beyond Gatwick Airport are subject to penalty fares if travelling without a valid ticket.

In 2009 a woman was found by a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) acting suspiciously. When approached she produced a gun and pointed it at a passing young child. Unarmed PCSO George McNaught of the Metropolitan Police wrestled the gun out of the woman's hands before overpowering and detaining her. The woman was arrested and PCSO McNaught was awarded the commendation of the High Sheriff of Greater London for his brave actions. He is the first PCSO to receive the award.[32]

In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, the title character was found as an infant in a handbag at Victoria Station, much to the consternation of Lady Bracknell. "A handbag?" "The Brighton line." "The line is immaterial!"

An abandoned Victoria Underground station features in the V for Vendettacomic book series as the base for the anarchist freedom fighter "V", and also appears in the film.

There are two connected London Underground stations at Victoria, on different levels and built more than a century apart. The older one, on the north side of the bus station, serves the District and Circle lines, constructed by 'cut and cover' methods just below road level. The newer station, closer to the mainline station, serves the Victoria line, a deep-level 'tube' line. Each has its own ticket hall, and the two are connected by a pedestrian passage beneath the bus station. Victoria is currently the fourth busiest station on the London Underground, after Waterloo, Oxford Circus and King's Cross St. Pancras, with nearly 85 million using the station (not including interchanging passengers) in 2013, of which around 60 million (including interchanges) use the Victoria line platforms.[citation needed]

The first part of the station was opened on 24 December 1868 by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) when the company opened the first section of its line, between South Kensington and Westminster. The DR connected to the Metropolitan Railway (MR, later the Metropolitan line) at South Kensington and, although the two companies were rivals, each company operated trains over the other's tracks in a joint service known as the "Inner Circle". The line was operated by steam locomotives, creating the necessity to leave periodical gaps open to the air.

From 1 August 1872, the "Middle Circle" service also began operation through Victoria, from Moorgate along the MR on the north side of the Inner Circle to Paddington, then over the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) to Latimer Road and then, via a now-demolished link, to the West London Line to Addison Road and the DR to Mansion House, the new eastern terminus of the DR.

On 30 June 1900, the Middle Circle service was withdrawn between Earl's Court and Mansion House. On 31 December 1908 the Outer Circle service was also withdrawn.

The original DR station was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century, initially as a single-storey structure. An office building was built above it later. The line was electrified in 1902/3.[34]

In 1949, the Inner Circle route was given its own identity on the tube map as the Circle line.

The Victoria line station opened on 7 March 1969, when the third phase of the line began operating, south of Warren Street. Victoria was the terminus while the final phase was under construction to Brixton, opened on 23 July 1971.

The station is one of the busiest on the London Underground system, serving nearly 80 million passengers per year. The station was not built for this number of passengers, which results in severe overcrowding. To prevent any dangerous situations like crowds pushing people off the platforms onto the track, crowd control measures are in place at the busiest times. This effectively means closing all the entrances to the Underground platforms and operating as an exit-only station until the overcrowding is relieved. These measures can last anywhere between a couple of minutes (when minor delays are occurring) up to several hours (during major incidents).

In order to provide a lasting solution to this problem preparatory building work has begun on major upgrade of the station.[44] This will include a new northern exit/entrance on the north-west corner of Victoria Street which will be accessible via a new additional ticket office under Bressenden Place that will lead to both the Victoria line and the Circle and District line platforms. This upgrade is due by 2018.[45] The work will also enlarge the existing Victoria line ticket hall serving the railway station and add a new relief bank of escalators there. This aspect of the scheme has been criticised as access to platforms from the new escalators will be very long and indirect compared to the direct access using the existing escalators.[46]

During the upgrade work, construction workers accidentally penetrated the signalling room of the Victoria line, causing quick-drying concrete to flood the room and resulting in the suspension of Victoria line services south of Warren Street. Services resumed the following day, after sugar had been used as a retardant to make it easier to shovel the concrete out.[47][48]

^Gray 1977, p.45. "Negotiations for the Grosvenor Terminus began in December 1857 although the name Victoria was by then being suggested due to the proposed station's location near to one end of Victoria Street."